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My cat Barrett was into all sorts of things, but was especially fond of those little blue or red tabs of morphine. I've never heard a cat purr so much. He was quite taken with them and took them habitually for well over a year. That is until his source dried up and he was left feeling pretty rundown without them. He even turned to snorting coke in order to silence that demanding little voice in his head. That voice that always wants just a little more...

Well anyway, I thought he'd cleaned up his act. He seemed to be fine for the last few weeks. Could it be that my cat had finally conquered that demon once and for all? Nah.

In a moment of weakness, Barrett had remembered a certain rumor that organic poppy seeds could in fact reproduce the effects that he so feverishly desired. So, being the clever cat that he is, Barrett asked me to take him to the local organic grocery store so he could get some catnip. It wasn't til I got home that I realized that he switched the bags of high grade organic catnip with a few bags of unwashed poppy seed. That silly cat! He could have just asked for it...

Anyway, after I got home the cat slinked off into the kitchen. I let him alone, as I was content to watch TV. About a half hour later, I went into the kitchen and noticed that Barrett's water dish was looking a little murky. Kind of yellowish and dingy. I said, "Barrett, now why did you have to go and piss in your water dish? You have a litter box for that." But who am I to judge? It was then that I noticed the empty bags of poppy seed. And I also noticed that his pupils seemed awfully constricted.

Interesting. Well, I went back into the other room and hopped onto my computer for a bit.

About an hour later, Barrett graced me with his presence once again. He seemed to be purring quite a bit. He looked very content. Kind of spaced out, I guess. He was also VERY itchy.

He eventually told me the truth - that he had, in an act of truly pathetic desperation, actually resorted to using the poppy seeds in an effort to "kill the pain". Or, in other words, get a fix. I'm not really a big fan of drugs, but as I always say "live and let live", you know?

I think what shocks me the most is how high he looked. From poppy seeds. Stuff you can buy anywhere. Stuff you can put on a muffin. I'm not going to go into any details about how my cat was able to produce the stuff - after all, I was watching TV at the time and I didn't see him make it. But it didn't seem to take very long at all. If I was to guess, he probably mixed in a pound and a half of seeds with the water in his dish and strained it or something. I don't know, but now that he's done it a few times I'd like the share with you a few of the effects that it's had on him. Some are good and some are bad.

Barrett prefers to lap it up in a few swift gulps. Though it may be in his mind, Barrett has told me that immediately afterward he feels warmer. That feeling of warmth tends to dissipate and then, for probably the first half hour after consumption, it always seems to him that nothing's going to happen. After that, he says that it's then that things start to get interesting.

Barrett, who is usually a bit of quiet cat, says that when the poppy seed tea starts to kick in he knows it because he can feel an incredible urge to socialize. He'll hop up onto my lap and start meowing. He'll begin to purr quite a bit, as though he's become incredibly happy. He'll start to stretch out - almost uncontrollably - like every muscle in his body feels good. He's described to me a gentle sort of warmth that seems comes from deep within his belly - a warmth that will gradually spread outward and through every part of feline body.

I've also noticed that as he's coming up, his pupils will get smaller and smaller. In fact, as an observer, I'd have to say that pupil size is a fairly accurate method of judging the potency of his trip - at his peak, his pupils will appear as little more than pinpoints (which is really kind of scary looking on a cat). Conversely, as the trip winds down, Barrett's pupils will gradually dilate and return to their normal size.

Unfortunately, it is during the peak (and indeed, throughout the remainder of his platea) that my cat will get incredibly itchy. Over and over again,he'll beg me to scratch him. I've never seen him get so itchy - not even when he was popping morphine or other opiates/opioids. In fact, there seems to be something chemically unique about poppy seeds that makes the itch even worse. Sometimes he'll scratch himself so much that he'll end up getting some red claw marks across various parts of his body.

During the high, Barrett has remarked that the tea is just as effective as any prescription painkiller on the market at treating pain. Every ache and pain incurred throughout the day becomes quite tolerable. Even his chronic back pain and migraines are no match for the potency of this poppy-based medicinal tea! The tea, for as crude as it is, seems to be every bit as potent as codeine and morphine, if not more so.

I'd go so far as to say that my cat might like the lowly tea more than the pills he had for so long now cherished. And incredibly, the duration appears to be much longer than one might assume - depending on the dosage and the speed of ingestion, effects may last anywhere from 4 to 7 hours (or more). The high is also very different from that of morphine or codeine - indeed, with the tea there seems to be a much stronger body high. With other side effects that include bloodshot eyes, cotton mouth, and sleepiness, I think it would be fair to suggest that poppy seed tea might be vaguely comparable to THC. Or so my cat says.

That having been said, the tea isn't perfect. In fact, there is one very peculiar side effect that I think is kind of worrisome. After the tea kicks in, I've noticed that Barrett will have a hell of a time just trying to take a piss. He'll just stand there inside of his litter box for what seems like several minutes at a time struggling to just get out a single stinking drop. Even with a full bladder, it doesn't seem to matter. He says that it's not painful or anything, just frustrating. And even nerve racking.

He'll strain like he's trying to take a shit just to squeeze out a few drops. Quite sad to see. Barrett wants to know why this is - is this a common side effect? Should my cat be concerned or is this a normal part of the poppy seed experience? He's concerned that certain alkaloids present in the tea may potentially cause damage to his kidneys. Having abused opiates for a year or so, he's had trouble shitting - but never urinating - so I think his fear is valid.

Anyway, Barrett just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to read up on his boring life and mundane observations.He's also sorry that he had me write so much. In closing, here are a list of pros and cons of drinking poppy seed tea - these are the opinions of my sentient cat. They are not those of his more responsible and ever-sober master.

PROS:
+ Inexpensive when bought in bulk. Bob's Red Mill seems to be a great choice as it is widely available

+ Cold-water extraction has worked as effectively as any other method and water is free

+ Effects come on slowly at first but once they hit, these effects will often last longer than prescription grade painkillers - effects peak within the first hour and then last 5-7 hours depending on potency and the speed of ingestion

+ In moderate amounts, poppy seed tea can cause moderate to intense euphoria and it can also induce feelings of empathy and sociability

+ If being used as a way to step down from opiate dependency, even lower doses will greatly lessen or even terminate feelings of withdrawal

SWIM sometimes used seeds when desperate.. he thinks the seeds he gets arent very good as however much seeds he uses he never manages to get proper 'high' he just gets to the stage where you feel really good but not quite 'there' if you know what swim means.

Just a tip tho, dont heat the seeds as you could detron all the codeine if the water gets above 40C and the morphine if it gets above 80C. So dont boil it

Also regarding the itchies, has swiy tried using an anti-histamine? SWIM never gets annoed by the itches, but and anti histamine should help as it would also potentiate the morphine.

Swim knows exactly what you're talking about when it comes to the pissing thing. He was at a large department store the other day trying to take a piss at the urinal when a couple of dudes walked in behind him wanting to use it. Well, swim thought for the first time he'd gotten stage fright so he nervously zipped up and walked into the stall to take a piss. It wasn't stage fright and it happened again, several times. Swim did get the itches the first few nights he used it but it went away with time. One worrisome thing is that when swim went to purchase more of the seeds from his local market the foreign cashier lady stopped and said to the other many cashiers "why would someone need so many poppy seeds". Swim started getting nervous as she seemed to be stalling as the security guard, who had a rifle on his shoulder, came closer. Finally swim just threw some money on the counter and took off. A few days later swim went to the same store to buy some more seeds he noticed these didn't work anywhere near as well as they had been. Swim wonders if he's built up a tolerance or if they just started washing them lately?

P.S. Swim read on another site that poppy seeds contain very high levels of lead and cadmium. Apparently, some people have had kidney problems and even cancer. Swim doesn't know if it's true but it is something to be cautious of.

Post Quality Evaluations:

Urinary retention seems common among tea drinkers. Good start, further research needed...

Swim has had both pod tea and seed tea. Swims first few experiences with tea caused him complications with urinating as well. Like mentioned, Swim first thought it was stage fright, but realized that it was in fact the tea causing him to be clogged up. However, after a few teas this effect dissipated for Swim and also Swim was able to go after a while when he was initially having complications.

Swim would like to say that if the cat enjoys seed tea, then Swim would suggest that the cat purchase some dried poppies from a reputable online vendor. In Swim's experience the pod tea is much more enjoyable, and usually one will accumulate enough seeds from the pods that they can have their seed tea when all the pods are used up.

When Swim first tried tea he made a big mistake. He didn't realize that the effects would take a good hour to kick in. Swim made a fairly potent tea of about 5 pods and chugged it down. Yuck Swim though how gross. About 30 minutes later Swim was not feeling very much and decided to try an additional few pods of tea. Big mistake. By the time Swim got to working he was having severe problems with nodding and ducking out. After about 2 hours of ingesting all this tea, Swim was probably on the verge of delerium. Swim now understands that good things come with patience.

Turtleface has used poppy seed tea many times. She is overall very pleased with the tea, but wants to share one bad experience with it to help warn others:

Very low opiate tolerance at the time of experiment. Used 2 pounds of untreated seeds. a cup of lemon juice. Maybe half a shot of spice rum was added. Also added baking soda and "emergenC" packets, because of the vitamin c, and different types of acid which might aid in extraction. She also added a very generous tablespoon of ginger to prevent nausea. Covered the seeds with luke warm water...water level was maybe a centimeter above seed level after she let it sit. Shook for ten minutes in two liter bottle. Barely opened the cap and squirted it out that way - minimal seeds came out, but had to press against the cap to ensure she didn't push it off or unscrew it with pressure. Did brief second extraction with a little water. Filled a coffee pot to the 10 cups mark.

She decided to drink half of it and see where she was before deciding to consume more. After an hour Turtleface felt definitely a bit sedated and slowed down, but wanted to feel it more - so Turtleface took 1500 mg of robaxin and 50 mg of promethazine...also took some ibuprofen which probably did little to potentiate. By the second hour Turtleface was itchy and pretty high. Mind is slow. Turtleface decided to take 8 milligrams of methoxetamine to potentiate the effects even more because Turtleface knew that it had dopaminergic effects. At about 2.5 hours Turtlefaces feeling extremely euphoric. Turtleface decides against better judgement to start drinking the second half of her poppy tea concoction (from probably about 1 lb's worth of seed). Before this poor decision Turtleface felt like she was intoxicated from perhaps 20 mgs of oxycontin, and like she had smoked a small bowl of cannabis. Very pleasant feeling. After decision to drink the rest of the tea, she started feeling uncomfortable and nauseous. She became disoriented in a way that was not pleasant but not explicity unpleasant at first. Euphoria actually DISAPPEARED by the time she finished the tea and she just felt uncoordinated. She became more and more nauseous and started panicking that she had overdosed. Whenever she stood up she became very nauseous. When she laid down, it subsided - a trick she remembered from the last time she had a slight OD on opiates some 8 years earlier. A few times she went to the bathroom and tried to make herself throw up and couldn't do it, however she felt awful. She passed out and woke up the next morning with a terrible headache and stumbled to the bathroom and threw up a few times. She felt like she was spinning. She was very thirsty. She laid down on the floor next to the toilet for about a half an hour before even feeling confident enough to even go to the bathroom sink to drink water out of the facet. After rehydrating and eating a light meal, She felt MUCH better and still very very high. The euphoria of the night before actually started to come back. She felt pretty high for the next 12 hours. Overall the experience lasted 24 hours which was more than she expected. Also, there is definitely a plateau with this stuff, She can only get so high before she starts experiencing very negative side effects. It's very easy to overdo it when having a good time with this stuff. She has since mixed MXE with poppy tea, at very light doses of mxe (never more than 10 mg), and does not believe this is what caused her to OD, nor does she believe it was the antihistamine or the robaxin as she has also used both of those since. She thinks that 1 lb of her particular type of seeds is the magic dosage and much less will hardly be felt and much more will cause disorientation, uncoordination and nausea. Despite this reckless attempt described above, she initially started very low and worked her way up to find that dosage, and thinks this is the safest way considering different seeds vary with their potency.

Well I don't know what it is with pets and mind altering substances, but my ferret, Gregory, claims he made some poppy seed tea last night. This is the recipe he has given me.

2 lbs poppy seeds in a large jar
Added a cup of grapefruit juice
added enough water to fill the jar
Stirred on and off for ten minutes
Filtered through a sock into a dish
More water and juice was add, and filtered again after five minutes into the same dish

Gregory says that he then evaporated this mix on minimum heat for around five hours. At 8:00 pm, he sipped on it until half of the tea was gone, then waited. This is when I found Gregory, and he looked extremely high and of course I decided that he should not have any more, so I put the remainder of the tea into the fridge. Gregory continued to get higher over the next hour or so, and stated that way for over six hours, nodding in and out, itching, and smiling until morning. When he woke up the next day, he still seemed to be itching and feeling slightly sedated, though he had a bit of a stomach cramp, so he took a Benadryl and made himself a coffee. This eliminated the symptoms.

Gregory says he felt little nausea and got higher than he's ever been, and is tempted to have the second half of his tea tomorrow. Whacky ferret! I worry for him sometimes, but I suppose it's none of my business what he does. As long as I am there to make sure he is safe.

I've got a fair opiate tolerance, and have used kratom for 11 years now.
I made tea with a pound of unwashed seeds from a vendor that's the go-to for tea and poppy lovers since all the others are quickly falling off the face of the earth thanks to the DEA overstepping its bounds, and felt no effects whatsoever. I have never tried pod or seed tea before.
Just putting my 2 cents in. Everyone handles the seed tea differently, apparently. I didn't even get an itchy nose.

Turtleface has used poppy seed tea many times. She is overall very pleased with the tea, but wants to share one bad experience with it to help warn others:

Very low opiate tolerance at the time of experiment. Used 2 pounds of untreated seeds. a cup of lemon juice. Maybe half a shot of spice rum was added. Also added baking soda and "emergenC" packets, because of the vitamin c, and different types of acid which might aid in extraction. She also added a very generous tablespoon of ginger to prevent nausea. Covered the seeds with luke warm water...water level was maybe a centimeter above seed level after she let it sit. Shook for ten minutes in two liter bottle. Barely opened the cap and squirted it out that way - minimal seeds came out, but had to press against the cap to ensure she didn't push it off or unscrew it with pressure. Did brief second extraction with a little water. Filled a coffee pot to the 10 cups mark.

She decided to drink half of it and see where she was before deciding to consume more. After an hour Turtleface felt definitely a bit sedated and slowed down, but wanted to feel it more - so Turtleface took 1500 mg of robaxin and 50 mg of promethazine...also took some ibuprofen which probably did little to potentiate. By the second hour Turtleface was itchy and pretty high. Mind is slow. Turtleface decided to take 8 milligrams of methoxetamine to potentiate the effects even more because Turtleface knew that it had dopaminergic effects. At about 2.5 hours Turtlefaces feeling extremely euphoric. Turtleface decides against better judgement to start drinking the second half of her poppy tea concoction (from probably about 1 lb's worth of seed). Before this poor decision Turtleface felt like she was intoxicated from perhaps 20 mgs of oxycontin, and like she had smoked a small bowl of cannabis. Very pleasant feeling. After decision to drink the rest of the tea, she started feeling uncomfortable and nauseous. She became disoriented in a way that was not pleasant but not explicity unpleasant at first. Euphoria actually DISAPPEARED by the time she finished the tea and she just felt uncoordinated. She became more and more nauseous and started panicking that she had overdosed. Whenever she stood up she became very nauseous. When she laid down, it subsided - a trick she remembered from the last time she had a slight OD on opiates some 8 years earlier. A few times she went to the bathroom and tried to make herself throw up and couldn't do it, however she felt awful. She passed out and woke up the next morning with a terrible headache and stumbled to the bathroom and threw up a few times. She felt like she was spinning. She was very thirsty. She laid down on the floor next to the toilet for about a half an hour before even feeling confident enough to even go to the bathroom sink to drink water out of the facet. After rehydrating and eating a light meal, She felt MUCH better and still very very high. The euphoria of the night before actually started to come back. She felt pretty high for the next 12 hours. Overall the experience lasted 24 hours which was more than she expected. Also, there is definitely a plateau with this stuff, She can only get so high before she starts experiencing very negative side effects. It's very easy to overdo it when having a good time with this stuff. She has since mixed MXE with poppy tea, at very light doses of mxe (never more than 10 mg), and does not believe this is what caused her to OD, nor does she believe it was the antihistamine or the robaxin as she has also used both of those since. She thinks that 1 lb of her particular type of seeds is the magic dosage and much less will hardly be felt and much more will cause disorientation, uncoordination and nausea. Despite this reckless attempt described above, she initially started very low and worked her way up to find that dosage, and thinks this is the safest way considering different seeds vary with their potency.

No offense to turtleface, but it would seem pretty obvious that the combination of dissociative research chemicals, crappy muscle relaxers, antihistamines, alcohol, ibuprofen, lemon juice, and multiple emergenC packets mixed with a med-high dose of PST is a surefire recipe for stomach discomfort and an overall feeling of crappiness - at the very least. Not to mention that potentiating drugs in and of itself can make it much easier to OD on smaller doses of said drugs. So even if turtle did OD on the opiates, the culprit is still the nauseating pharmaceutical cocktail your friend took. Well, the real culprit is your friend, for being unwise enough to down such a barfy cocktail, and then decide to drink more opes against her better judgement.

My recommendation is if you want to feel more high on PST, just drink a little bit more of PST instead of wreaking havoc on your tummy and body with multiple other crappy substances which probably don't do anything more than dirty up the experience.

Dinosuzuki, please take not of the date of posts you are replying to. That post was made a year and a half ago and that member has not logged in for over a year.
Also please dont quote long posts, just address your post to the person you are responding to.

Gotcha, will do in the future. Though, I don't think advice intended to promote harm reduction should be limited by a postings date, so long as post in question hasn't been addressed yet in the thread, and if the thread is still on the first page though, right?

My rationale is, there are plenty of people who may not be the most responsible in the world, and may look to places like this to get ideas on how to have a good time. And if they read something that may be a bad idea, and that bad idea has not been called out as such, they may wrongly think that it is in fact a good idea and try something similar - thus, this is how many bad ideas continue to propagate throughout the internet .

I will definitely pay attention to dates in the future, though, and not directly quote long posts. Thanks for the heads-up

As someone who has worked in IT since 1998; If the costs are so high, maybe it's time to think about some server migration. The costs I see are outlandish, you have to make the choice in the current technological climate to stay where someone is possibly gouging you, or cannot meet your needs. Either way, time to shop around.

the itching and trouble peeing will take care of it's self and go away with habitual use. Addiction and dependence will become the big issue and you will wish that pissing and itching was the problem! That should say ME instead of you because I experienced the itching and bladder retention too but not any more now I just get dope sick if I don't have tea every day...cheers!this to shall pass..so to speak